Established in 1958 by the founding Father and our late Chairman Dr. Sohan Singh Josh who arrived in Kenya in 1947 after witnessing the bloody partion of India & Pakistan. He joined his Father Mr Kartar Singh Mudher who was already settled in Karatina and working for the British as an ironmonger in the railways.

He however had dreams to start up his own workshop and after a brief period working as a machinist for Gailey & Roberts in Nairobi he started Kartar Engineering Works in 1950 with his late brother Puran Singh Mudher. After working for a number of years the brothers decided to part company and so Sohan Singh Josh & Sons Ltd was established in 1962 by Dr. Josh & Mudher Engineering Works was established by his younger brother a few years later.

Dr. Josh rented a small workshop on Ukwala Road, downtown Nairobi and started initially with a few hand tools, a vice and a welding machine. Through sheer grit and long hours he started acquiring second hand machines to help in growing the business. Over the next ten years he managed to acquire larger machinery allowing him to take on bigger jobs as well as a variety of repair work.

It was in the late 60’s that Dr. Josh decided to look into crankshaft rebuilding machinery which was not available in the country, this lead him to the UK and then on to the USA where he met William R. Gleason of Gleason Engineering Industries (Texas). Mr Gleason was the inventor of the submerged arc welding machines used specifically to rebuild worn out crankshaft journals in all types of engines. Dr. Josh seized the opportunity and ordered a machine which was to arrive in Nairobi in 1968, the first one of its kind in Africa besides South Africa.
Dr. Josh’s two sons (Rajinder & Robinder “JJ”) as well as son in law (Tarlochan Singh Panesar “Totu”) joined the business in the early 1970’s and the engine reconditioning business flourished. Dr. Josh expanded the reconditioning machinery by buying a number of crankshaft grinders from the AMC group in Denmark as well as block borers, cylinder head skimmers and line boring machines. In the early 80’s Mr Josh invested in a much larger arc welder to cater for heaver & longer crankshafts as well as rollers and bought an exclusive license with Gleason the manufacturer not to sell the same type of machine in the East African region for the next 10 years.

This license together with the high level of expertise in using such complex machinery cemented the name of Sohan Singh Josh & Sons as leaders and pioneers in the field of mechanical engineering in Kenya as well as East Africa.